Ozette's Recipes

"Yummy food is all around us."

Ozette and her friends hope you'll enjoy trying some of their favorite recipes. They like to eat healthy foods so that they have plenty of energy for adventuring, rafting, skydiving and other outdoor activities. Feel free to add your own touch to the recipes. So brew up a cup of mint tea, relax and imagine your Farlandia friends are sitting next to you. Who knows? With all the magic in the air, you might be surprised at what can happen. *Safety Note: Like those in Farlandia, some of these recipes use real, edible flowers. Please make sure any flowers you use have not been sprayed with chemicals. Also, food processors are wonderful for chopping ingredients quickly, but the blades are very sharp. Either have an adult do the chopping or, if you do it, be very careful. If you don't have a food processor, you can hand chop the fruit and nuts and give 1/2 of the oatmeal a quick whirl in a blender.Garden Bouquet Salad – makes about 6 servings. Ariel loves this salad and has been known to pick all of the violets from it and gobble them down. She swears it makes her violet eyes brighter. You can personalize this salad by adding or subtracting whatever you like. Add a little cheese or nuts for a main dish. 1 package organic Spring Mix (if you grow your own salad greens, that is even better) Snippets of young dandelion greens (optional) (These can come from your yard – but not if they have been sprayed with chemicals. You can also find these at some larger supermarkets.) 1/2 can of garbanzo beans (chick peas), drained 1/2 cup cherry or grape tomatoes 3 chopped green onions 1 stalk chopped celery 1/2 cup sliced olives – black or green 1 cup broccoli florets 1/2 cup freshly picked unsprayed violets from the woods or garden. Later in the season you can use nasturtium flowers. Yummy. Mix well in your prettiest salad bowl. Toss with your favorite dressing.

Jumbledberry Scones – Makes 8 Unless you live where elves and fairies are growing jumbledberries, you may have to make some substitutions. Ozette suggests you use a jumble of dried fruits for the same taste. She likes a mix of dried cranberries, dried blueberries and dried cherries, but feel free to experiment with other combinations. 2 cups flour (Ozette likes organic whole wheat pastry flour for her scones) 2 tablespoons sugar 1/2 teaspoon salt 3 teaspoons baking powder 2 eggs 4 tablespoons butter or margarine 1/3 cup heavy cream or milk 1/2 to 1 cup jumbledberries or dried berries of your choice. How much you use depends on how fruity you want the scones. 1 cup coarsely chopped nuts (Ozette loves walnuts or pecans in these, although you can use any nuts. Use more or less depending on how nutty you like your scones.) 2 teaspoons sugar to sprinkle on top Mix the flour, 2 tablespoons sugar, salt and baking powder in a bowl. Using a fork, cut in the butter until the mixture looks like fine crumbs. Add the dried berries and nuts. Mix well. Add the eggs and cream to make a stiff dough. Most recipes call for rolling out scones and cutting them, but squirrels are too impatient for that. Ozette likes to flour her paws (wash them first), divide the dough into 8 pieces, and pat each piece until it is fairly flat but still a little mounded. Sprinkle each round with a little sugar. Arrange on a greased cookie sheet and bake at 400 degrees F for 15 minutes or until browned. Enjoy with a cup of honeysuckle tea or other beverage.

Nutty Fruitinas Oliver developed this recipe and loves to add new kinds of nuts and seeds to the cookies for his friends. They freeze well. (The cookies, not his friends.) Group 1 3 cups mashed bananas 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 1/3 cup oil (Ozette likes coconut oil)

Mix well with a spoon. Group Two Put 1 1/2 - 2 cups of dried fruit in a food processor. Ozette loves a mixture of raisins, dried berries and dried fruits. Her favorite combo is dried cherries, dried cranberries, dried pineapple and dried apricots, but you can experiment. Then add: 1 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats (uncooked) 2 cups pecans or other nuts 1 cup of seeds (This is optional. Ozette likes to use pumpkin and sunflower seeds.) These all go into the food processor and are processed until well blended. Add group two to group one. Then add 1 1/2 cups uncooked oats to this mixture. Be sure to mix well and spread on two greased cookie sheets. Bake at 315 degrees F for 40-50 min. When cool, cut into squares.

Spinach Quichette – serves 4 1 lb fresh spinach steamed for 10 minutes 2 shallots 2 cloves of garlic, peeled salt and pepper to taste 1 teaspoon oil to coat the pan 7 ounces goat cheese (if you don't like goat cheese, mozzarella or feta are also good) 5 large eggs (Ozette likes free-range organic eggs) 2 oz sun dried tomatoes (optional) If using a food processor, process shallots and garlic in a food processor until minced. Otherwise hand-chop them. Add cheese and eggs and puree until smooth. You can do this in a food processor or a blender. Oil an 8x8-inch baking pan. Spread the lightly steamed spinach on the bottom of the baking pan. Pour egg mixture over spinach and bake at 425-degrees F for 20 minutes, or until the top is browned and a table knife inserted in the center of quiche comes out clean. *This is also good using lightly steamed asparagus and sautéed mushrooms. Buy mushrooms at the grocery store - don't gather mushrooms from the wild. Ozette can eat mushrooms that could be poisonous to her human friends, so buy yours at a human store!

Garbanzo Legumettes Ozette hates getting popcorn kernels stuck in her teeth, so her friends devised this recipe. It's a crunchy, delicious snack that is a wonderful change from popcorn. 3 cups cooked chickpeas (garbanzo beans) or substitute 3 cups of canned chickpeas (about 2 15-oz cans), rinsed and well drained. 1/4 cup olive oil 6-8 cloves of finely minced garlic – use more or less depending on how well you like garlic. (Ozette claims it helps her stay healthy.) Salt and pepper to taste, if desired Preheat oven to 450-degrees F. Using paper towels, pat chickpeas dry. Lightly grease a cookie sheet with cooking oil. In a large bowl, toss together chickpeas, oil and garlic. Season lightly with salt and pepper if using. Spread in single layer on cookie sheet. Stir occasionally while baking. Bake 30 to 40 minutes, or until chickpeas are very crunchy but not burned. Cool 5 minutes before serving.